Deeplinks Blog posts about Social Networks

Facebook recently started rolling out a new "experiment" that would allow any individual to pay a small fee to send a message to your inbox. Your Facebook messages page has two folders: "Inbox" and "Other." Currently, most friend and group messages go to the inbox, while messages from everyone else automatically go to the Other folder. Facebook is testing a feature that would make this no longer true: now anybody can pay ($1 is the latest rumor) to make sure her message goes straight to your inbox.

Even before this change, one could not have a private profile—all profiles are now searchable. But this new experiment takes it even further, where a stranger can not only find your profile, but can also ensure that a message reaches you.

Earlier this week, we were extremely concerned when Instagram1 proposed a set of changes to its terms of service and privacy policy that would have expanded the ways in which the service was permitted to use uploaded photos in advertising. In addition to concern about user photos being sold to the highest bidder, we were troubled to see the company modified language that previously protected the privacy of user photos. We’re happy to note that, after intense public pressure, Instagram has reverted to the prior policy with regard to advertising on the site and ownership rights of photos. Before seeking users’ agreement on new permissions, Instagram has promised that it will propose a specific program, so users can make a more informed choice.

The European Court of Human Rights decided today that, unsurprisingly, Turkey had violated their citizens' right to freedom of expression by blocking Google Sites, sites.google.com.

Turkish law prohibits any insult towards Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the nation, as well as any general insult towards "Turkishness." This form of censorship has led, as one might expect, to some examples of egregious government overreach.

Something is amiss in Central Asia. Just last Friday, Kazakh news site Tengri News reported that officials from Kazakhstan's General Prosecutor's office were refuting earlier claims that prosecutors had filed lawsuits against Google, Facebook, and Twitter and that the lawsuits were, in fact, against local newspapers Respublika and Vzglyad.

Some things change, but others stay the same. While the types of threats facing Internet users worldwide have diversified over the past few years, from targeted malware to distributed denial of service attacks, one thing has remained constant: governments seeking to exert control over their populations still remain the biggest threat to the open Internet.